Britain to Lose Over £700 Million

The European Commission is refusing to pay a claim for compensation from the British Government over the Foot and Mouth crisis.

The government is able to claim for 60% of the cost of the Foot and Mouth outbreak from Brussels. Its current compensation claim stands at nearly one billion pounds. However, the Commission is concerned over the way the government handled the crisis by slaughtering millions of healthy animals in the contiguous cull.

Two years after the end of the crisis, only £217m has been paid, and it appears that the Commission will cap these payments at £250m, leaving almost £700m unpaid.

The Rt. Hon. Sir Robert Atkins, MEP the for North West, said:

"The government must explain to North West farmers why they are being short changed. The Commission doesn't believe the UK Government's figures or trust the way it handled the outbreak.

This shows how badly managed the crisis was by the UK Government. It allowed costs to run completely out of control, and the European Commission is not impressed.

It is a shocking indictment of the government that the EU has decided not to pay such a large proportion of the compensation claim."